


Tales As Old As Time

by AsagiStilinski



Series: Pridecember 2018 [28]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Children's Stories, Established Relationship, Kids, M/M, Married Couple, Parenthood, Yami Yuugi | Atem has his own body, ygopridecember2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 20:21:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17210270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: After becoming parents, Seto realizes that Atem has an endless array of stories to tell their childrenHe, on the other hand, doesn't even have one





	Tales As Old As Time

**Author's Note:**

> Day 28 of Pridecember 2018- "Tale"

It's funny, really, that Atem, at one point, couldn't recall a single thing about his past, not even as much as his name, but now that he remembers, he has so many stories to tell that Seto can't even keep up

It was one thing early on, when it was still just the two of them

He would listen somewhat half-heartedly, only really caring about the fairytales in the way that they made Atem happy to tell and therefore he was determined to sit and atleast pretend to pay attention just to see the pharaoh's face light up

But now, everything was different

About six months ago they had completed their first adoption- two little girls, one seven, the other four, who reminded him a little too much of himself and Mokuba from many, many years ago

As the saying goes, parenthood changes everything, and even Atem's storytelling had changed

If, ofcourse, by "changed" you mean "increased"

But now that Atem had a brand new audience to listen to him-one who was immediately more excited, interested, and entertained, who was always happy to hear new stories- his tendency for telling stories had increased

He would find any and every opportunity available to relay a tale from his past, be it one that was actually about him or one of his many, many MANY stories about the gods or some mythological figures

Every now and then Seto even had the honest treat of hearing one that Atem's mother told him, but that was truly few and far between, as even the pharaoh himself only scarcely remembered those

His mother had died when he was merely a toddler, the few stories he remembered of her's had been told and retold a million times by Mahaad after her death to make sure that Atem wouldn't forget them

The irony was almost cruel

Still, Seto liked hearing about the things that mattered to his husband, even if he didn't care a single bit about the gods or mythological figures or old fables

It did, however, make him crave, in a way

It made him crave the opportunity to tell his own stories to their children, to have a legacy like Atem seemed to, to be able to capture their interests and give them something of his to look forward to

Seto brought a great many things to the table as a father but storytelling wasn't one of them

He just.... didn't have any stories to tell

He didn't remember much about his parents, the older he got, the less he remembered, and he could never recall either of them telling he or Mokuba stories the way Atem's parents had told him

He couldn't recall ever learning much about religion or spirituality either, wich was no surprise, considering that he had been atheist up until the rediculous situation involving his husband's trip to the afterlife came into play, and even now he considered himself to be questioning more than anything else

But stories....

He wished he had stories to share like Atem did

He wished he had stories to pass down from his chidhood onto his children, something of his own, something that would endure the test of time, a legacy, as Atem called it

The fact that he didn't have even one was .... frustrating, to say the least

And, as all things do, this ended up being expressed to Atem at some point during the first several months of parenthood

It wasn't by choice, actually it had been the result of a small almost-fight

Seto, in his frustrations about his own lack of stories to tell, had made a few ill remarks about Atem's- particularly about the gods

And seeing as how his partner was a very religious man, that hadn't exactly gone over well

More importantly though, Atem- knowing his husband as he did- had been quick to notice that something was wrong for Seto to be suddenly picking at his stories like this, and after a small confrontation it had just... spilled out

As the truth so often did

"I see.... you have no stories of your own, and that's .... not something I can give you, or something I can fix..."

"You don't have to fix everything Atem," Seto pointed out with a quiet sigh

He expected an immediate rebuttal, but instead, Atem was quiet for a short wile, before speaking up again

"You know, Seto.... there IS something you can do, to have your own stories,"

"Oh? And what would that be?" he asked skeptically

"I think it's best if I explain through a story of my own,"

Seto held his tongue, bit back a remark, and simply waited, knowing it would be fruitless to try to stop him anyway

"Once there was a goddess named Sekahh, Sekahh was very beautifull and wise, she was brave and kind, and had many admirable aspects to her, in fact, she was often envied by others because of her beauty and wisdom, but Sekahh did not care about these things, she did not care about anything as a matter of fact, for Sekahh was the goddess of mourning, she mourned all living things, whenever something passed on, she mourned for it's soul, be the creature as small as a beetle or as mighty as a pharaoh, and because of this, Sekahh was always sad, she was always heavy-hearted, never feeling happiness or love or even peace, this was her burden to carry, as the goddess of mourning, she never thought it could be any other way, until one day when she met a young mortal girl named Han, Han was unlike anyone else she had ever met, for when she met with Sekahh, she was not afraid, or sad, she didn't ask for the goddess to mourn anyone for her, all she wanted when she saw Sekahh was simply to play a game of ball, she knew who the goddess was and what she represented, and yet she did not care, she thought that Sekahh should have the same privileges that she- as a mortal- was allowed, and that included fun and games, so Sekahh decided to take a break from her duties, she put aside her job as a goddess for a short time to play with the mortal girl, and for the first time in thousands of years, since her very creation, Sekahh smiled, and laughed, and felt something other than sadness and pain, and from that moment on, once every few days, she went to the mortal plain to play ball with some children, to allow herself a break from the constant greif,"

Seto waited, but the story seemed to be over

"That's great, but how does that help me?"

Atem smirked, a knowing look on his face as he leaned against the couch

"Sekahh isn't real- I made her up, I made the entire story up, right there on the spot,"

...........

"You're kidding,"

"I'm not,"

"How many times-"

"Well this is the first that I've told you that wasn't true, or wasn't from my childhood atleast, but the point is, if you do not have any stories to share, Seto, then simply create some create your own legacy as you have with everything else, I promise, it isn't that hard,"

Seto didn't quite believe him about the scale of difficulty, and yet.....

He was almost desperate by this point to tell the girls a story of his own, instead of letting Atem hog the spotlight

So the next evening when it was time for them to go to bed and they asked for a story, Atem kindly stepped away to handle "something", and allowed Seto the floor

It was a little intimidating, knowing that he was doing this completely on the spot, but something about that made it all the more exciting too

"Once upon a time..... there was a goddess named Sekahh,"

Well, he would come up with his own next time, for now, there was nothing wrong with sharing something that had been shared with him

That's the purpose of stories, after all, isn't it?


End file.
